Epidemics kill thousands of children every year. Here's what you need to know about epidemic diseases and how we help protect vulnerable children around the world.
Preventable infectious diseases remain among the leading causes of death for children under five globally, with epidemics disproportionately affecting those in humanitarian crises and low-income settings. When disease outbreaks strike, children face the highest risks—their developing immune systems, limited access to healthcare, and dependence on adults for protection make them uniquely vulnerable.
Last updated: November 2025
Health worker Miraha, 25, vaccinates Iftine, 7 months, at a mobile outreach session in a remote community in Oromia Region, Ethiopia.
What is an epidemic?
An epidemic is the unusual increase in the number of cases of an exisitng or new infectious disease in a certain region or population.
Epidemics can often be the result of other disasters, such as floods or earthquakes. They may also attack animals, causing local economic disasters.
Epidemics require rapid, localized intervention—establishing treatment centres, distributing supplies, training health workers—while pandemics like COVID-19 demand coordinated global responses. Save the Children operates across both scales, maintaining emergency response capacity while strengthening long-term health systems that prevent outbreaks from escalating.
What are different types of epidemics?
- Cholera - an infectious disease that causes severe watery diarrhea, which can lead to dehydration and death if untreated. It is caused by eating food or drinking water contaminated with a bacteria.
- Malaria - is a life-threatening disease. It’s typically transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito.
- Ebola Virus - a deadly disease that spreads via direct contact with bodily fluids of a person who is sick with the virus.
- HIV/AIDS – a virus that damages the cells in your immune system and weakens your ability to fight everyday infections and disease. AIDS can't be transmitted from one person to another, but the HIV virus can. Here's how you can stop transmission.
- Yellow Fever - a tropical virus that is transmitted by mosquitoes. It affects the liver and kidneys, causing fever and jaundice and can be fatal.
What the Data Says
Children bear the heaviest burden when epidemics strike. In low-income countries, infectious diseases rank high of all child deaths—a rate that spikes dramatically during outbreaks.
Recent epidemic patterns reveal troubling trends:
Cholera: After years of decline, cholera cases surged globally in 2023. Africa experienced a 125% increase in cholera cases and a 62% increase in cholera deaths compared with 2022.
Measles: Measles cases surged worldwide, infecting over 10 million cases globally in 2023—a 20% increase from 2022—with outbreaks concentrated in regions where routine vaccination dropped during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly all measles deaths occur in children under five.
Mpox: The WHO declared mpox a public health emergency in August 2024 after cases spread across Africa, with children and pregnant women facing higher mortality rates than other groups.
These numbers tell only part of the story. Beyond immediate deaths, epidemics disrupt education (schools close during outbreaks), nutrition (caregivers fall ill, markets shut down), and protection (overwhelmed systems can't safeguard vulnerable children). The ripple effects compound existing inequalities.
How do Save the Children respond to Epidemics?
Child health
Provide frontline healthcare as well as re-establishing/setting up primary health care facilities. We will also distribute essential supplies to health facilities, such as gloves, IV fluids, soaps, buckets rehydration treatments, drugs and antibiotics.
Water, sanitation and hygiene
Provide water, sanitation and hygiene to help stop the spread of disease by making sure people are able to keep themselves clean, this could be through the distribution of hygiene kits. We ensure health workers have sufficient protection from exposure. We also raise awareness in communities of how people can protect themselves and prevent further spread.
Child Protection
Make sure unaccompanied, separated and orphaned children are cared for, and help them reunite with their families, as well as supporting children to cope with the distress they’ve experienced.
Health system strengthening
Emergency response saves lives today, but preventing tomorrow's epidemics requires resilient health infrastructure. We work with governments and local partners to train healthcare workers, ensure vaccine cold chains function reliably, and establish disease surveillance systems that catch outbreaks before they spread
Addressing root causes
Epidemics thrive where poverty, conflict and inequality create vulnerability. Our UK programmes tackle child poverty that leaves families unable to afford heating (worsening respiratory infections) or nutritious food (weakening immune systems). Globally, we advocate for policies that prioritize children's health, from pandemic preparedness funding to climate action that addresses the environmental changes driving disease pattern shifts.
Ebola Crisis 2014-2020
Children listen to advice and information about Ebola, as well as take part in activities at an awareness activity hosted by Save the Children in Beni, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo.
In 2014, the Ebola epidemic spread through West Africa at terrifying speed. At its height, five people were being infected every hour in Sierra Leone, and the number of cases was doubling every three weeks.
Fragile health systems were at breaking point, and shortages of protective clothing left health workers vulnerable to infection and many died. The outbreak was one of the most challenging contexts Save the Children's teams had ever faced. To deal with the Ebola crisis effectively, we had to help build health infrastructure and information systems from scratch – something that would normally take years.
The DRC's largest Ebola outbreak and the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history began when four cases were confirmed in the eastern region of Kivu in August 2018.
Save the Children worked with the Congolese government and the World Health Organization and its partners on the ground to stop the spread of the outbreak and to support existing health facilities.
Our responses included:
- Constructing and staffing Ebola treatment units and centres, community care centres and mobile clinics, as well stocking health facilities with medical supplies and equipment.
- Running community sessions to raise awareness of the disease, how it spreads, and how families can protect themselves, which was key to bringing the epidemic under control.
- Training volunteers to monitor and trace people who had been exposed to the virus meant that we could isolate and treat people as soon as they became infected.
Together with Save the Children’s DRC country team, the Emergency Health Unit trained more than 1,200 health workers and almost 1,000 community leaders, and reached more than 1 million people with information.
Beyond our health response we also provided families with
- Practical help: Many children lost everything to Ebola, including their parents. We were able to help safeguard these children’s futures. We reunited children with extended family members and got children back into school.
- Physical help: Children who had lost parents or older siblings to Ebola had also lost the regular money those family members brought into the home. We provided these children with nutritious food and household items like mattresses and clothing.
- Emotional: Surviving Ebola or losing a family member to the disease was hugely traumatic and was often made worse by being stigmatised by scared neighbours. We helped protect children by providing psychosocial support, in interim care centres and at home and educating communities to reduce the stigma.
Frequently Asked Questions about epidemics
How do epidemics differ from pandemics?
Epidemics affect specific regions or populations, while pandemics spread across multiple countries or continents. COVID-19 started as an epidemic in Wuhan, China, before becoming a pandemic. Both require urgent response, but pandemics need globally coordinated action while epidemics often succeed with regional intervention—though without proper containment, epidemics can escalate into pandemics.
Epidemics affect specific regions or populations, while pandemics spread across multiple countries or continents. COVID-19 started as an epidemic in Wuhan, China, before becoming a pandemic. Both require urgent response, but pandemics need globally coordi
Cholera, measles, mpox, and diphtheria currently cause significant child mortality during outbreaks. Respiratory infections like pneumonia—which Save the Children has called "the forgotten epidemic"—kill more children annually than any other infectious disease, though they rarely generate headlines. Climate change is expanding the reach of vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue into new regions where children lack immunity.
Why do epidemics hit some children harder than others?
Poverty, conflict, malnutrition, and weak health systems create compounding vulnerabilities. A malnourished child has a weakened immune system. A child in a conflict zone may lack access to vaccines or clean water. A child whose family can't afford healthcare delays treatment until illness becomes severe. These disadvantages cluster—children facing one vulnerability typically face several, multiplying their epidemic risk.
What happens to children during epidemics beyond the immediate illness?
Schools close, disrupting education and cutting off meals that many children depend on. Caregivers fall ill or die, leaving children vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. Healthcare systems focus on outbreak response, suspending routine services like immunizations and maternal care. Economic shocks push families into poverty. Our analysis during COVID-19 showed these indirect effects often harm more children than the disease itself.
